Teaching tolerance to our kids
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| Mon, 12-27-2010 - 4:06pm |
The discussion in the other thread about gay marriage (OK, it wasn’t so much a discussion as an attack on granitestategal, plus the last time I checked it had devolved into mumbling and maniacal laughter...time to move on!) got me to thinking about this new generation of kids and how things have changed for them. Technology has exploded, and kids are more connected than ever before. They’re also disconnected in a whole new way, but this thread isn’t about that. I’d like to know what we are teaching our kids as far as tolerance for other religions, races and lifestyles.
My parents were brought up by parents who were extremely prejudiced against non-Catholics and non-whites. My great-grandparents must not have passed along the lessons they’d learned as immigrants themselves. The town we lived in was predominantly white and Catholic, and up until high school I didn’t know anyone who was black, Jewish, Hispanic, or gay*. When I moved away from home, I was blown away by how different people outside my little world really were, and fascinated by it. I was, and am, determined to raise my kids to respect and appreciate the differences of others and to understand that deep down we really aren’t that different.
A few years ago when DS was 4, we ran into the husband of a co-worker at a music festival. My co-worker is also male. I probably went overboard in my introduction, but I wanted to get the point across that it’s perfectly OK for some families to consist of 2 dads or 2 moms, or one parent, or parents of different races/religions.


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Kitty
"If you can't annoy somebody with what you write, I think there's little point in writing."-- Kingsley Amis, British novelist, 1971 t .
curious, do you think b/c there is no drinking age in Greece there is not a major problem with kids drinking like in the U.S ? "kids dont drink much"
Exactly what I thought.
I will answer you, NO i do not sign in as my kids and roam around acting like them
Great, neither do I.
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Why yes, I can clearly see that at least one person doesn't read the posts on this social website, lol.
I think it is more cultural. Since it is not a big drinking culture, nobody probably ever thought it was necessary to set a drinking age.
Of course people drink, and alcohol is a big part of the culture, but the way they drink is very different from the way people drink further north. For example, dd was greatly amused by the British concept of "pre-drinking." Since the point of going out there is to get plastered and drinks are expensive in bars, the kids drink at home to get a cheap start on the night's buzz. This just would not occur to dd and her friends down here. She went out for New Year's with her friends. She had a glass of wine with us at midnight and then went out. She came home at 7AM, but she was not drunk or anything. They had been dancing and nursing a beer or something for most of the night.
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